How to Avoid Email Spam Filters and Folders

As email marketers, some of the bigger obstacles we face are spam filters and folders. That’s why we designed the following infographic – how to avoid email spam filters and folders.Download infographic here.

In most cases, spam filters are really good at their job. But what if they make a mistake? Or what if you’re triggering the spam filter and don’t even know it?

What makes a good girl go bad, a hero turn evil, a well intending email into spam?

Your email ROI reflects the overall success of all of your email campaigns. This is a classic tale of a protagonist, in this case, a marketing email making a few wrong turns and ending up in the email equivalent of purgatory… the spam folder.

Neil Patel: “In the past, the only way to make sure that spam filters didn’t mark your emails as spam was to make sure that the content of your email wasn’t spammy. It used to be easy. Spam filters searched for certain flagged words and language and then scored your email based on how many of those phrases your emails contained. If your spam score was low, your email went into the inbox. If it was high, it would never make it in.”

Emails are sent to the spam folder when the spam filter determines they are, well, spam. The spam filter stops emails from going to an inbox.

If your emails are going to the spam filter, it means you have low deliverability.

Deliverability means: a way of measuring the success rate of emails making it into the subscriber’s inbox.

Deliverability depends on a whole bunch of things. One of those things is sender score. Sender score is determined by an algorithm that looks at the rating of an IP address associated with the outgoing mail server.

Different servers have different filters, which use a unique criteria for labeling spam. So while your email might slide through on some servers, like Gmail, it could get stopped by others, like Hotmail.

Filters can either be installed by the user or by the email program. Users can manually pick features to filter the spam, while email programs have automatic systems.

There are a few automatic systems that filter spam.

Bayesian filter is one of the most prominent. It’s used by Outlook, Thunderbird, and Apple mail.

This system filters mail out based on what other people are marking as spam. Bayesian looks at the traits of those emails and then looks for them in other emails.

If you have a trait they deem”spam worthy,” you will be docked points. Once an email reaches a certain number of points, it’s sent to the spam folder.

The challenge/response is another type of spam filter. These filters look to see if you’re in the recipients’ address book. If you’re not, they consider you a spambot and send you a followup to confirm you’re not.

The best way to combat this is to have your customers add you to their contact list. But more on that later.

Large companies, such as Google, use email firewalls. Firewalls are essentially giant spam traps on top of the filters.

Firewalls are triggered easily, so it can be very difficult for your emails to get through on the first send.

Firewalls are typical at large companies, so if you’re customers are using their work email, you might see low deliverability rates.

While these are just a couple examples of spam filters, there are many more and it can get quite complicated.

You’re smarter than Mark, but for sake of the story, let’s say you took Mark’s advice. Emojis, caps and money symbols galore are in the subject line.

It does seem attention grabbing and you’re about to send it when Mark’s twin brother, Chad, walks by and asks to take a look.

“Hmm…the subject line is good, but the body is lacking. Add a bunch of graphics, links– anything to build up that body!”

He says this while flexing his muscles and swigging a protein shake.

Don’t let your body go

Even if you get past the filter, customers are going to delete emails that don’t have unique content, incentives or exciting news. The same goes for brands sending emails too often.

But even if your content is gold, there are so many little ways to be labeled as spam. All the trigger words and same rules apply to the body copy.

Body Language

Think of it like a party with the ideal ratio of males and females.

Equality between text and images…and the sexes!

Don’t include one giant image or a bunch of small ones without supporting text.

If there isn’t enough text, spam filters will think you’re trying to trick them and that makes them angry.

Ratio should also be considered with links. Don’t add a plethora of links and ESPECIALLY make sure you’re linking to legitimate, credible sites.

Nobody likes ‘sloppy’ unless it’s followed by ‘joe.’

Be extra particular when it comes to your grammar, spelling and coding.

Consider including the date somewhere in the body so filters know the email is current.

The issue is, you’ve now listened to Mark, because he’s your boss, and Chad, because his muscles scare you.

The email has morphed into something completely different.

The infamous unsubscribe link

You add in an unsubscribe link to your Frankenstein of an email when Javier stops by your desk to take a look.

Mark, Chad and Javier are triplets.

“The unsubscribe button is in plain site. It’s like you want them to unsubscribe. Hide it!”

He goes on, “And don’t use the support email address, it will fill up our inbox. Make it a do-not-reply address.”

This advice isn’t surprising advice from someone who deadbolts his door at dinner parties so guests can’t leave.

While no marketer wants unsubscribes, they happen. It depends on your industry, but according to MailJet an unsubscribe rate up to 1% is within the norm.

The CAN-SPAM Act says the unsubscribe option must be included in the email, and not difficult to find.

It also has to be a working link for up to 30 days past the send date, and you must honor unsubscribe requests.

Don’t be a triplet named Javier.

If your customers want to unsubscribe, let them. It keeps your lists cleaner and allows you to segment lists with greater precision. We’ll go into that in just a bit.

Why don’t you want to hear from customers?

Your ‘from email address’ needs to be a legitimate sending address. ‘No-reply’ email addresses can get caught up in the spam filter. This a bad practice and might effect your overall email domain reputation. Our recommendation is never to send from a “do not reply” email.

And if they don’t get caught in the filter, recipients are more likely to mark/report your mail as spam according to eConsultancy.

Enough abuse reports and the server you use to send mail will be blocked.

This is called being blacklisted.

In other words, it will become impossible to avoid email spam filters and folders.

No-reply addresses will never be added to your customers address book and frankly make you seem like you don’t care about customer opinion.

Letting customers know they can reply to your emails, even if they’re automated create a better customer experience. More importantly, it will encourage communication between your brand and customers, along with improving engagement rates.

Engagement rates could be considered open rates and/or click rates. These, along with the purchase rate or the number of people placing an order after receiving an email are critical when your email’s effectiveness.

Back to the story.

So now that the subject line is cheesy and the unsubscribe link is hidden, per the wishes of the triplets, it’s time to pick the email list.

Email blast them all

This leads to questions. Should the email be sent to active customers, inactive customers or everyone in your email list, including people from a Tweet-Up in 2008?

21.) Keep customers engaged through product review requests, order followups and general feedback requests so they don’t become inactive. Inactive customers lead to low opens and clicks

22.) Include the date in email to show it’s current

23.) Avoid changing the from name frequently

24.) Make sure any claims in the email are honest and real – don’t offer something and then include hidden conditions

25.) Reference your domain in emails AKA sender policy framework (SPF) – SPF is pretty much the standard for email authentication. It compares the sender’s actual IP address to a list of IP addresses authorized to send mail from that domain. This is important to keep in mind when using a third party to send your emails like Remarkety, SendGrid, MailChimp, etc.

So now what?

For starters, you should be feeling more confident about sending emails that go to the primary inbox. If you aren’t and have questions drop us a line or send us a Tweet.